God of the Gaps

In 1894 Henry Drummond wrote: ‘There are reverent minds who ceaselessly scan the fields of Nature and the books of Science in search of gaps. Gaps which they will fill up with God. As if God lived in the gaps?’

While this is possibly the first time ‘God of the gaps’ was used in literature, the concept was not new. Many years earlier Hippocrates wrote:  “People think that epilepsy is divine simply because they don't have any idea what causes epilepsy. But I believe that someday we will understand what causes epilepsy, and at that moment, we will cease to believe that it's divine. And so it is with everything in the universe”

For many God is simply the interim answer to those gaps in our knowledge that we have yet to fill with scientific discovery. An ‘act of God’ is a term used on an insurance claim to explain something out of the control of human kind. When we don’t understand or can’t find an explanation we invoke the name of God. This is very convenient but it relegates the whole idea or person of God to the limits of our understanding. It makes God a creature rather than the creator of our intellect.

God is real and he is personal. He does not want to be limited to the role of filling the gaps of our experience or knowledge. God expects to be a part of every aspect of our life and understanding. He is the reason for our existence and the ultimate purpose of our lives. How does God fit into our experience? Do we like so many others relegate him to finding solutions to those matters that we cannot solve for ourselves, or do we invite him to participate fully in all that we do and want to become? Is prayer a last act of desperation after we have exhausted our capacity and resources or do we turn to him first of all expecting him to engage with us in finding solutions to the problems we face? Has God become the God of the gaps in our life, do we limit him to ‘spiritual’ matters or is he an active partner in all of our experience?

The idea of a ‘God of the gaps’ was once a popular means of trying to prove the existence of God. But God doesn’t need to be proved, he doesn’t require the authentication of human, and necessarily limited, intellect. He needs to be honoured, acknowledged and worshiped. Don’t try to fill up the gaps in your life with God, instead enter a personal relationship in which he fills all of your life and gives new meaning and expression to how you live it.